My Take | Mandelson scandal could be the tipping point that costs Starmer his job
Episode has cost China not only a British politician prepared to work for better ties but also potentially a prime minister willing to do business with it
Veteran British politician Peter Mandelson’s visit to Hong Kong in 2024 came as a new era dawned, both for relations between the UK and China and his own career.
Speaking at the University of Hong Kong in September that year, soon after the Labour Party’s election victory, the former trade minister expressed optimism that the new government would engage with Beijing and forge closer ties. He spoke highly of Hong Kong.
Mandelson played down suggestions he would soon be appointed Britain’s ambassador to the US, joking that he had learned of such speculation in the newspapers.
But the rumour mill was spot on. The Labour Party elder statesman was given the prestigious job three months later, seen as someone whose trade experience, expertise and contacts would be invaluable when dealing with incoming US President Donald Trump.
Few who attended the Hong Kong forum, “A new beginning in British foreign policy and its implications”, would have imagined the guest speaker would become engulfed in a scandal that now threatens to cost British Prime Minister Keir Starmer his job.
Mandelson, 72, was sacked as ambassador in September amid a growing furore over his relationship with convicted child sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.